xenomorphique
[...] Botswana and South Africa alerted the world to this variant, but it was found among travelers who reportedly flew in from Europe. And it was subsequently found that the variant was reported in the Netherlands a week before the announcement from Africa. How do you feel about the world reacting by banning travelers from southern Africa?
huzni
We were saddened. For me, personally, I felt that after two years into the epidemic, clearly as the global health community, we could be responding better and coordinating better.
How do you reward the countries that alert you of a potential dangerous pathogen with travel bans? My country was put on a red list, and I didn't feel good about that.
We know the repercussions. Flights were canceled, goods were not coming into the country, a lot of businesses lost millions. And our vaccine supply was being threatened because of delays on the way. Quite a trail of destruction.
So it was a roller coaster for us. On the one extreme, we felt [we were] contributing to the world in a small way. And on the other end, we felt, is that how you reward scientists or scientific progression? [...]
